Review of Research of the 1940s

and 1950s
From Interviews with Dr. Francis Mechner &
Dr. Murray Sidman
Cathy Polakoff

The author interviewed Drs. Mechner and Sidman by email in the spring of 2011 as
part of a project for a History of Behavior Analysis class at the University of North
Texas. The information below is derived from those interviews. PDFs of the actual
interview with Dr. Mechner can be found on his personal page on this website, with
links to the 1940s and 1950s sections of the „When‟ page. Dr. Sidman responded to the
interview questions with two previously published journal articles, which are listed on
his personal page on this website, again with links to the 1940s and 1950s sections of
the „When‟ page. Finally, a journal article by Hefferline, and two others that he co-
authored, are listed on his personal page and linked to the 1950s section of the „When‟
page. It should also be noted that Dr. Mechner mentions in his interview that during the
1940s and 1950s, Behavior Analysis was referred to as “learning theory”. All articles can
also be found listed under the „References‟ section below.

1950s
Recollections of Important Areas of Research
Individual features of and effects of reinforcer presentation for operant responses

Avoidance behavior and free operant studies

Biofeedback (developed in large part by Hefferline)

Quantitative models of learning

Conditioned reinforcers and stimulus-response chains

Skinner‟s teaching machines and “verbal summators”

Behavioral pharmacology

Stimulus control – with pigeons, with electrical resistors, and with the U.S. Navy (a
study on radar-watching behavior in sailors)
 Scientific ethics

Recommended Readings
Keller, F.S. & Schoenfeld, W.N. (1950). Principles of Psychology: A Systematic Text
in the Science of Behavior, New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. (This was an
introductory psychology textbook that became one of the first textbooks in Behavior
Analysis.)

Sidman, M. (1952). A note on functional relations obtained from group data,

Psychological Bulletin, vol. 8. (Reprinted in Psychological Bulletin, 49, 263-269.)

Sidman, M. (1953b). Two temporal parameters of the maintenance of avoidance

behavior by the white rat. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 46,
253-261. (Doctoral dissertation)

Skinner, B.F. (1953). Science and Human Behavior, Pearson Education. (Reprinted
by the B.F. Skinner foundation (2005).

Skinner, B.F. (1957). Verbal Behavior, Copley Publishing Group: Acton,

Massachusetts.

Interviewee Recollections of Important People

B.F. Skinner (Mechner, Sidman)
Bill Cumming (Sidman)
Bob Schuster (Sidman)
Charles Crocetti (Sidman)
Charles Ferster (Sidman)
Clarence Graham (Sidman)
Claude Shannon (Mechner)
Connie Mueller (Sidman)
Donald Blough (Sidman)
Donald A. Cook (Mechner, Sidman)
Fred Keller (Mechner, Sidman)
J.R. Kantor (Sidman)
Jim Dinsmoor (Sidman)
Jim Holland (Sidman)
Joe Antonitis (Mechner, Sidman)
Joe Brady (Sidman)
Mike Kaplan (Sidman)
Murray Sidman (Mechner)
Nat Schoenfeld (Mechner, Sidman)
Ogden Lindsley (Sidman)
Peter Dews (Sidman)
 Phil Bersh (Sidman)
Ralph Hefferline (Sidman)
Thom Verhave (Sidman)
W. Winnick (Sidman)

References
Hefferline, R.F. (1950). An Experimental Study of Avoidance, Genetic Psychology
Monographs, 42, 231-334.

Hefferline, R.F., Keenan, B., & Harford, R.A. (1959). Escape and avoidance
conditioning in human subjects without their observation of the response, Science, 130,
1338-1339.

Hefferline, R.F. & Perera, T.B. (1963). Proprioceptive discrimination of a covert

operant without its observation by the subject, Science, 139, 834-835.

Keller, F.S. & Schoenfeld, W.N. (1950). Principles of Psychology: A Systematic Text
in the Science of Behavior, New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

Schoenfeld, W.N. (1950). An experimental approach to anxiety, escape and

avoidance behavior. In P.H. Hoch & J. Zubin (Eds.) Anxiety (pp. 70-99), New York:
Grune & Stratton.

Sidman, M. (1952). A note on functional relations obtained from group data,

Psychological Bulletin, vol. 8. (Reprinted in Psychological Bulletin, 49, 263-269.)

Sidman, M. (1953b). Two temporal parameters of the maintenance of avoidance

behavior by the white rat, Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 46,
253-261.

Skinner, B.F. (1953). Science and Human Behavior, Pearson Education. (Reprinted
by the B.F. Skinner foundation (2005).

Skinner, B.F. (1957). Verbal Behavior, Copley Publishing Group: Acton,

Massachusetts.